Afghan transit goods: Pakistan allows clearance sans insurance guarantees

Pakistan on Thursday allowed clearance of all Afghan transit consignments without submission of insurance guarantees in cases where the Afghan importers have filed complete customs documents till October 14, 2011.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday that an important meeting on the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) chaired by FBR Member Customs Mumtaz Haider Rizvi at the Customs House Karachi has taken key decisions to expedite clearance of transit trade consignments. The meeting was also attended by senior customs officials, Afghan traders, representatives of the Afghan Consulate and other stakeholders.
The meeting took three important decisions for speedy clearance of consignments under the APTTA. Firstly, it has been decided that all the Afghan consignments would be cleared without submission of insurance guarantees where the Afghan importers have filed necessary customs documents upto October 14.
Secondly, Pakistani customs authorities would only examine upto 5 percent of the Afghan consignments as compared to previous practice of examining 20 percent consignments. Thus, 5 percent of the total Afghan consignments would be selected for physical examination under the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Rules.
Thirdly, it has also been decided that the containers containing Afghan vehicles (left hand drive) would be scanned and cleared without physical examination of such vehicles. The physical examination process of the Afghan vehicles imported under the transit facility was creating problems for the Afghan importers. The vehicles were taken out of the containers for physical examination before clearance, which was a time consuming process. To facilitate the clearance of ''left hand vehicles'', it has been decided that the containers of ''left hand vehicles'' would be scanned and if there is no suspicion, the same would be cleared without physical examination.
The decisions taken by FBR Member Customs Mumtaz Haider Rizvi would not only facilitate speedy clearance of Afghan consignments, but also resolved key issues of the Afghan importers. The Afghan side showed satisfaction over the decisions taken by the Pakistani customs authorities during the said meeting.